ABX testing with AQ Dragon power cords

@mclinnguy read your thoughts on the comparison. The UHQR are very nice. I have Steely Dan and Miles Davis. The sounded superb when I had the table.

My room is a challenge as well. It’s not square but not too far from it. I struggled with bass overpowering everything else and I have no sub. Just my Wilson Sabrina and Pass X260.8 mono amps. Once you tune the room and system the difference becomes apparent. I still suspect the sub is a possible culprit. Also, the 4” thick GIK bass traps will suck up some of the mids and highs as well. I switched to limited range tri traps behind the speakers and the results are excellent.

When I read you heard sibilance with mogami xlr vs Absolute Copper that’s exactly one of the biggest differences I heard in my system when switching between Mogami studio gold and AZ Absolute Copper. So I don’t think you imagined it. In any case, it is what it is.

You know I’ve read the criticism of ASR and how badly they treat people with different opinions. My goal on posting my experiences here is not to stir up crap and cause trouble. If anything I’m providing a counterpoint. I’m not bashing those that believe power cords make a big difference nor am I demanding that you agree with me. They are valid experiences that support the contention that in some circumstances cables sound the same. But sarcastic posts as I’ve encountered here (audphile1) show that ASR isn’t unique, people don’t like to read experiences that differ from theirs. They find them threatening.

@dwcda , Hmmm, your account is a lil over a month old. You had to have existed somewhere else before you joined here....I see some symptoms of an ASR scientist incognito by the nature of your posts since then. What"s your username there? Tell Majidimehr I said hi.

On to this topic, if you can’t hear any differences, isn’t that a wonderful thing?? You can sport 10 dollar amazonbasics wire and save thousands.

Here are the reasons cable difference can’t be heard though.... the 3 Ts

- Terrible room+untreated room

- Terrible gear (not all gear/speakers is resolving, it can be sht packed in a pretty chassis)

- Terrible ears (combination of unfortunate genetics, age and/or accumulated hearing damage)

In either case, you are good, count your hidden blessings and save thousands by sticking with 10 dollar Amazon basics wire.

Future Prediction (I could be wrong):

I also get the feeling you could soon start a thread on ’all amps and dacs sound the same" like ASR scientists. Well, how about that? That’s tens/hundreds of thousands in savings headed your way soon.

You can throw away all the dacs and stick with the 2 dollar realtek dac in your pc. You can throw away all the amps and get a Pyle amp for 40 bucks....

Savings....Savings....Savings...Bravo.

No, I have no account on ASR. My room is square but treated and is vastly better sounding than when it was untreated. My McIntosh/Lumin/Pure Fidelity gear seems like it should be able to resolve properly. If my ears are bad then so are the ears of 4 others who came to my house to compare cables... including a guy who manufacturers cables. He also complimented the room acoustics and my equipment.

I doubt I'll be swapping my MC462 for a Pyle amp and my Lumin T3 for a Realtek DAC. I assume that's the gear you're sporting so you've got that covered.

Funny thing, you're proving how correct my quote was about how similar the treatment of dissimilar views here is with ASR.

All jokes aside, here are a few things to consider

- Your rig is not the most resolving rig out there...That almati with a 6 inch mid and dome tweeter crossed over higher than i would like is no resolution beast (compared to say, a Borresen, etc). It is a very pretty and "musical" speaker and you pay more for the pretty, i suppose. The Mac is no beast of detail, depth-wise nuance, etc. It is one of those flat soundstage amps (flatten everything out). Pair that with the fact that you have your speaker close to the wall, sub in the suboptimal location, etc...you reap what you sow. Ummm...couldn’t comment on your dac, never heard it, but, i would wager that it is not some king of detail like aavik, technics, etc, In summation, you probably won’t detect any soundfield nuance change, etc that can happen from a cable change. But, your goal probably was to have a "musical" (non hyper-detailed) setup and your rig probably accomplishes that... nothing wrong with that....

- A power cable is the the one cable you should spend the least on. After you put it through the conditioner, it’s only job is to reject noise until it gets to the component. It is the not the best cable to spend beacoup bucks on and can be accomplished for cheaper. The interconnects, speakercables, digital cables, etc can play a larger factor.

- I would also wager that any guy walking off the street to hear your rig is not some trained listener and golden ear bat...Sounds like poor quality test subjects to me.

Nevertheless, if cables didn’t do anything great for ya, count the pennies saved and have some happy listening sessions..... Tis a wonderful day indeed.

@dwcda 

It's a shame that we can't all have the vast knowledge and experience that @deep_333 has. It would save us so much time and money, but on the other hand, it would hurt to realize how terrible our systems really are when we stupidly thought that they sounded good.